Video Cards
Overview Video cards or GPUs (Graphical Processing Units) are expansion cards that are used to generate and display graphical images to a display. Different video cards offer various additional functions, such as the capability to display multiple monitors on the one card, 3D stereoscopic and many more other functions. The GPU can be integrated into the motherboard itself which uses less energy then an external card but doesn't provide the system with enough oomph to run graphically demanding applications. In the future there could be many more implementations made to the hardware such as faster rendering and greater memory which results in a greater performance. What to look for in a Video Card There are certain aspects of a video card that separates different video cards from each other when looking to purchase a video card. *Memory *Size *Outputs *Power Usage *Clock Speed *Price Memory The more memory available on a video card will allow applications to be run smoothly at higher resolutions. The range of current video cards will be from 512mb to 1/2gb of memory. Modern day video cards would have GDDR3 for low-end video cards, GDDR4 for mid-range video cards and GDDR5 for high-end video cards, which means that DDR and DDR2 has been phased out as they are not as good. Size The size of the video card is a feature which can either make the video card usable or unusable as the card may not fit into the case which has been a popular mistake with modern day cards reaching 10 inches in length or 25 cm in length (Almost one 30cm ruler!). Outputs Depending on end user needs, the end user should look at what sort of displays they are using as older displays tend to use VGA ( Visual Graphics Array ) whilst newer displays use DVI ( Digital Visual Interface ), HDMI''' ('''High-Definition Multimedia Interface) and VGA. Certain displays may restrict choices when looking for video cards. Power Usage The power usage is probably on of the most important things to look at if you need to save as much money as possible. Some video cards may give a tiny percentage performance advantage over the competitor product but the power consumption could be much greater which could be a sacrifice to make if you do choose the better performing card. Clock Speed The GPU is specifically designed to process floating point calculations which is particularly important when doing 3D graphics rendering. Video cards range from 450mhz to 4ghz. Modern day video cards would be around 1.1ghz. Price The price of this specialised card is something to analyse inside out if you were tossing up between a couple of video cards. Just like CPU's, the most powerful card would most likely be great when looked at from the "bang for buck" scale. Whereas going for a slightly slower or a lower model will give slightly less benefits but will ultimately give the end user the bang for buck card. Brands There are two dominant brands in the video card market with the two brands holding similar characteristics to the CPU brands. The two dominant brands are: *Nvidia *Ati Nvidia Nvidia is the larger company of the two although it doesn't currently have the top crown of the most powerful GPU. Nvidia graphics cards offer users 3D stereoscopic viewing which allows games and certain clips to be played in 3D with the aid of external apparel. Nvidia cards are known to use up alot of power and have a high cost price. Ati Ati has been a company for a long time but hasnt had much success until now as they currently have the crown for the most powerful GPU. The latest 5 series graphics cards offered by Ati have a feature called Eyefinity which allows 3 displays to be used on the one video card. Ati is tagged as the underdog but has come to recent success as they have cheap, powerful products which gives them the more bang for buck award.